Doom Into the Depth
by Jochern
Summary: Valkyria Temple joined Gunnery Sergeant Asher Mahonin and his team down to investigate an underwater research facility after they lost contact with the first RRTS team they sent down. What they found was unlike anything they could ever imagine. (AU)
1. Chapter 1

This is an Alternative Universe story focusing on two years before the events of Oldevai. This story is separate from the old Doom story I wrote years ago.

* * *

Doom Into the Depth

Chapter 1

 **4** **th** **Mars 2044**

 **Somewhere in the Pacific, Underwater Research facility Deepstar Four**

He was very glad he had made the decision to leave Nephthys behind for this mission.

Half-jogging, half-stumbling Jason Stark keyed the door panel to the room frantically. The grey metallic door slowly receded into the wall and allowed him inside. It squeaked as it did so and he looked around with worried eyes, a gash over his left eye and cheek, leaving him half blind which made the situation even shittier. He spun around and gave both ends of the corridor a quick look over with his Spec R25 Assault rifle, his right eye focusing through the small scope.

He moved backwards inside the room, leaving a small blood trail of drops behind him. he had also left blood finger prints on the panel, as he did when he closed the door using the panel inside the room. It squeaked close slowly, way too slowly for his liking. He did a quick sweep with his rifle and the light attached to it and confirmed that the control room he was in was empty. Just three lines of monitors and computers and a large thick window that led out into the ocean that surrounded the facility on all sides.

"Okay Prophet, focus, focus," he told himself, using his official codename. His voice was covered with hints of stress and pain.

He stumbled over with his healthy and wounded leg to one of the computers that he quickly confirmed to be the communications terminal. He took a deep breath and looked at the timer on his wrist. His team was now half an hour past the standard six hours of quarantine and overdue to report in. He pressed the keyboard and it offered up red text on the screen.

"Communications offline," he read. "Son of a bitch. Okay, okay Prophet. That's fine. You didn't wanna make a call anyway."

He turned around and breathed out, relaxing for a moment. He knew it was only a matter of time before another RRTS team was sent in, and hopefully with better luck. No doubt Nephthys was going with them, her old injury be damned. He flinched out of his thoughts when he heard banging on the door.

"Oh bugger," he said tiredly.

He put a few rounds in the panel to prevent it from being opened easily. The Banging was joined by growling and it grew louder. He figured there was more of them outside and with no other exit and preciously little ammunition left, this, well, would be a tricky one. He leveled his Spec DR25 rifle at the closed metal door and readied his last frag grenade.

"Alright so sons of bitches, come and get me," he whispered challengingly. He arched his eyebrows and clenched his jaw.

 **4** **th** **Mars 2044**

 **North America, United States, California**

 **RRTS Headquarters, Twenty-nine Palms**

In their barrack Corporal Dean Portman was sitting on his bunk, leaned back and with a pair of playboy magazines on his right side. He was wearing the standard black fatigues and his blond-brown hair was combed back in a typical sleazebag sort of way. He had a small and pained, smirk on his face.

"I know he was a terrorist and all but, that was just uncalled for Temple."

Valyria Temple was a fair skinned woman approaching her thirties. Her hair was raven black and set up in a high ponytail with stray strands trying to escape it. Granted she was the smallest member of RRTS 6 but she was way stronger then she looked, plenty of endurance and good reflexes after nine years in the Marine Corps. She had gorgeous silver colored eyes. If Portman would describe her in one word, it would be gorgeous. Without a doubt. With a defensive smile on her lips she said,

"Oh, what? He had that coming. Shooting him in the groin was the least he deserved."

She got a combined groan in response from the men in the barrack, safe for Eric Fantom, aka Goat, who wasn't paying attention. He was reading that bible that he always had around. After wincing Portman threw an eye at the emotionless Christian. His mouth was moving silently so he was mouthing that nonsense to himself.

"Nobody deserved getting shot in the groin," an African-American in his thirties stated with a chuckle. "Not even Gorski."

His name was Gregory Schofield, but was commonly known as Duke, which was his codename in combat. He had his black beanie on. It was sort of his trademark thing since he always wore it. Well, most of the time anyway.

Portman and the giant of the team nodded in agreement.

Their friendly neighborhood team giant was a dark skinned fellow named Gannon Roark, aka Destroyer. He was a Sergeant, so same rank as Temple. He was bald, strongly built with muscles and with a height pretty close to two meters. He was on par with their CO. Gunnery Sergeant Asher Mahonin. Or Sarge for short.

"Guys," Temple said amused and rolled her eyes and laid down on her bunk. "Next mission I'm gonna shot all the bad guys in the groin just because."

Portman smirked, eyes focusing on her breasts for a moment.

"Total ruthless. You didn't change during leave, huh."

"Nope. Neither did y'all."

In the corner of the room sat Mac, the tech of the unit. An Asian man with a stoic look and black marine-cut hair. He didn't have any input into the conversation but occasionally smirked.

He glanced at Staff Sergeant John Grimm, aka Reaper, as he entered the barracks with steady steps. He walked straight towards his locker and picked out his towel. He scratched his unshaved stubble for a moment before heading towards the showers.

"Not true," Portman claimed, refocusing on Temple. "Lots of things changed. Such as Duke finally losing his virginity."

There was a combined chuckle or laugh from everyone safe Duke himself. Even Goat smirked. He saw a smirk on Reaper's face too. He hadn't caught what led them up to that but that had amusing under any circumstance.

"Your mom didn't complain," Duke took a jab at Portman.

"Fuck you!" Portman snorted.

Temple half-sat up and Duke-who was standing by his bunk that was beside hers fist bumped her.

"You left yourself open for that one," Destroyer told Portman in his deep voice.

Reaper was halfway through the doorway into the changing room leading to the barrack showers when Sarge stepped through the door into their little bunking space. He was a tall and muscular man, his head shaved and a firm and serious look on his face. A typical career soldier at first glance. He stood at 1.96 meters in height, against Destroyer's 1.94 meters, making him the tallest of the team. Fitting as CO perhaps.

"Hold Reaper," he said.

Reaper stopped and looked at their CO, saluting. Everyone else snapped off a salute.

"What's up Sarge?" Destroyer boomed.

"At ease. We got a mission men," Sarge explained, hands held together behind his back.

Portman caught Temple glancing at Duke.

"I thought we were leaving for Congo in five hours, sir," she chimed in.

Sarge directed his gaze on her first but kept it leveled on everyone mutually later.

"The Congo op is cancelled. We're going after RRTS 4."

Portman arched an eyebrow.

"Prophet's unit," he recollected. "They in trouble Sarge?"

"They have missed a scheduled check in and there is still no contact with the facility they went to investigate so we're assuming trouble. This mission is a search and rescue including the crew of Deepstar Four. It could be a communications problem, if it is we move to search and destroy and support their operation." He paused. "Corporal Nephthys Sevchenko is joining on on this one. Full brief en-route. Get your gear."

A round of "Yes sir!" Declared the conversation at an end.

Without missing a beat Reaper marched back to his bunk and left his towel and grabbed his necessary gear from his locker.

On their way out Portman leaned closer to Duke.

"I thought all members of unit 4 was on the mission," he commented.

"Yeah. Maybe she was injured," Duke suggested.

"Or Prophet didn't trust the rookie on this one. Doesn't make me feel better for having her along now."

After gearing up the team made their way to the tarmac with Sarge on point. On the way to their ride Corporal Nephthys Sevchenko hooked up with them. Portman eyed the twentyish marine intensely. She had dark skin, black hair to her shoulders and a pair of lovely violet eyes. as a young marine he figured she would be pretty easy to get her to spread her legs. He licked his lips with a sexual hunger.

When everyone was inside the helicopter and it started taking off Sarge gathered everyone's attention.

"Alright people, listen up," he started. "Ten hours ago RRTS 4 departed on a mission to an underwater research facility named Deepstar Four. The station had been out of communications for twenty-four hours. Already at that point and the last transmission was concerning a quarantine situation in one of the laboratories. That was the last the surface heard from them. It took our team three hours to get out there and adding six hours of standard quarantine, they are one hour overdue. Command doesn't want to take any chances if it turns out our own is in trouble,"

He paused and looked at Nephthys.

"Corporal Nephthys Sevchenko is accompanying us because it's her team and command obliged. Prophet ordered her to sit the mission out because of injuries from the previous mission, last week." He eyes his men, now sterner then before. "Her condition is more than adequate for preforming her duty." The last statement was pointed at certain individuals in his unit.

"Do we know what the quarantine was about?" Mac asked.

"Negative. Since the facility does a lot of biological work it is likely connected to something they picked up off the sea bottom."

"Could be some sort of bacteria," reaper theorized. "Doesn't explain loss of contact though. Even if everybody was dead when Prophet and his unit arrived they should still have been able to use the communications system and leave in their mini-sub if it got too greasy."

Sarge nodded.

Temple glanced at Sev. The Egyptian girl looked worried. Her team was missing after all, her friends and her family. It was easy to think of your teammates as family. She did. Portman off course being the messed up brother who would either go to jail or die at some point.

"We have a two hour ride in front of us. Then a drip by mini submarine to the bottom. That's another hour. Deepstar Four is divided into two main sections. Crew quarters and Research. The main control room is in the Research section and they have a secondary in the Crew section. Deepstar has ten crewmembers on board plus our seven. When we get down there, we find our people."


	2. Chapter 2

Doom Into the Depth

Chapter 2

 **4** **th** **Mars2044**

 **Somewhere in the Pacific, Underwater Research facility Deepstar Four**

After a quick decompression after attaching to one of the facility's docking areas RRTS 6 was ready to safely leave the mini submarine. The first out was Sarge himself with Destroyer and Temple behind him and the rest following. Temple looked around and the docking corridor was dark, the place built with grey steel and her eyes went to the doorway six meters in front of them. With a gesture from Sarge she took point with him. They started for the closed metal door and Sarge keyed the panel and nodded to Temple to go through first. She answered with a nod of her own. The metallic door slowly retracted into the wall and Temple scurried through with her assault rifle aimed aimed and her finger resting teasingly on the trigger.

The first thing Sarge had done was to contact Prophet's team but no one answered.

She walked into a larger room. Thirty meters wide and ten meters long and just as dark. She aimed around the place with the flashlight on her rifle lighting up her path. There was four other airlocks like theirs. It was for the other docks for mini submarines. One of them being filled. One as an evac option for the facilities staff. The one that dropped off RRTS 4 had returned to the surface. This time the mini-sub would remain behind and wait for them. Sarge had put Mac on keeping their exit secured. The only way forward was a large metal door that was half-open.

The RRTS 4 members they were searching for was Jason Stark aka Prophet, Sheva Coetzee, Jack Falcon, Stephano Castile, Cory Walker, Rupert Bregman and lastly Glen Priebus.

"Clear!" Temple said.

"Clear," Destroyer agreed.

Safe for Mac everyone was filing out.

"No welcome committee," Duke remarked. He looked up at the ceiling. "Not a big fan of the dark."

"What, cared?" Portman mocked.

"Quiet," Sarge told them. He turned to his team. "Reaper, Goat, Portman you check the other mini-sub and then proceed to the research section, Duke and I will head to the docking area for the facilities own mini-submarines. Destroyer you take Temple and Sev and check the crew section."

"Yes, sir," Reaper said, with the others joining in.

"Let's move out. Hold the fort Mac," he added in his radio.

" _Yes Sarge_ ," Mac affirmed.

Destroyer, Temple and Sev was on point through the larger half-open door and behold, the corridor was as dark as the docking chamber. Temple keyed a panel for light but it didn't work.

"No power," Destroyer chimed in.

Temple turned around and looked sat Sarge.

"Sir the air's gonna get pretty stale in here soon if we don't get power back on. We need to get the air pumping."

He agreed with her assessment.

"Reaper. I want to to take a look at the internal docking area before heading to research, Duke and I will see about getting power back online."

Sev took a deep breath and looked at Temple.

"Air feels a bit stale already ma'am," she commented.

Temple titled her head left and turned around again.

"Yeah. It'll probably be unbreathable in here in a few hours."

The followed the long four meter wide corridor for a good three minutes before they faced the door into the living quarters. They opened the slow moving door and Destroyer stepped inside.

"Clear," he confirmed.

Temple and Sev followed.

"Left or right?" Temple asked.

Destroyer looked down both ends of the corridor.

"I like left," he stated and started walking.

She shrugged and followed with her weapon ready. Sev was at her side, nervous. Probably worrying about her teammates.

Temple turned to look at her.

"Hey, we'll find them," she said in a soft voice.

Sev smiled slightly.

"I hope so ma'am."

They checked the cleaning room first. It was empty but a few things looked to have been tossed around or kicked over. Next was a food storage room filled with shelves with boxes of food and for obvious reasons it was cold as heck. It took a good two minutes to clear out the place before they could continue down the corridor. They only kept moving for thirty seconds before Destroyer stopped.

"Christ," he groaned. He turned to look over his shoulder at Temple. "First casualty."

He levitated his light over a body. It was a man-Temple thought-in a lab coat and a blue garb underneath. He was lying on his stomach and his head wedged in the semi-closed door. His head had been squashed utterly when the door had closed. There was blood and gore everywhere around the bottom of the doorway.

"Oh my god," Sev gasped.

Temple saw her body tensing up and looked away from the corpse. She felt her own stomach turn at the sight. Sev looked like she might vomit.

"Didn't take long to find a casualty," Destroyer remarked. He contacted Sarge over the radio as Temple bent down for a nametag. "Sarge, we got a dead guy in a lab coat here. Looking for id."

" _Can you tell how he died_?" Sarge asked.

"His head was crushed by the Mess hall door. Nothing left." he shook his head. "Bad way to go."

"Doctor Julius Cassius," Temple read in her radio.

"Should be bag him now?"

"Negative Destroyer, continue searching. Sarge out."

Destroyer keyed the panel beside the door and opened the squeaking door. Temple was first inside and found the large mess hall chaotic. Tables and chairs turned over and thrown around and blood on the ground. There was two doors. Into the kitchen and out in the other end. The kitchen door was open. It looked like someone had tried to use chairs to blockade it. Clearly it had failed.

Sev took a long step over the doctor's body and held her breath as she did so.

"Sev," Destroyer called. She looked at him. "You good?"

"Y-yes sir."

"On me than. Temple check the door on the other side, we're clearing the kitchen," he said in his deep voice.

"Got it," she nodded and directed herself for the other end of the mess hall.

She smiled and threw a glance at Destroyer and Sev. It looked to her like he was taking the rookie under his wing. He was a strong and silent type of guy, but very supporting and he looked out for everybody. As far as circumstances and ability allowed.

* * *

Sarge keyed the panel a dozen times before frustration set in and he punched it. Unlike in the movies it didn't work. The door into the power room remained mostly closed. There was a few centimeters open space. Duke was keeping an eye on their surroundings as he worked on opening the door. Power to the doors was on a separate system but this door still didn't cooperate with him.

"Forget this," Sarge grumbled and let his rifle rest by the strap. He moved in closer and put his fingers in the open space and started trying to force the door open enough to let them in. He had to use all his strength to move the fucking thing even slightly. After a strenuous minute he had opened it halfway and relaxed and took a breather.

"Good enough. Duke."

He aimed his assault rifle and stepped through the half open door. The power room wasn't the biggest ever. It held a console and three medium sized generators. A lot of power for a station with ten employees he thought.

Duke was right behind him and stood inside the doorway and kept an eye on the corridor outside.

Sarge started working the console to activate the generators. Finally he got power restored and Deepstar lit up.

"Oh yeah! That's way better man," Duke said with a big grin as air started pumping again and a light breeze caught his face.

Sarge smiled a little himself.

"We're moving towards research," he informed everyone on the open channel.

* * *

Temple heard Sev giggle a little when the lights came back on. She wasn't big on going around in the dark either. She preferred the light and being able to see your enemy clearly. She tried the panel on the wall next to the door and it opened. She peeked left and it was clear, then right and it was also clear. She stepped out into the corridor.

"Clear," she told Destroyer over the radio.

" _Kitchen's clear too_ ," he answered.

When Temple turned around she saw a man six meters off in the junction on her left. she raised her rifle and assumed a steady stance.

"Hello? RRTS 6, we're here to help," she said aloud. "Destroyer, I got someone. Sarge I got a survivor."

It took her a second but she realized he was wearing RRTS garbs and the black vest. He was standing his his face half turned away from her.

" _We're on the way, Temple_."

She stepped towards him, getting a meter closer to him. then the lights in the corridor started flickering and she cussed the lights for a second before refocusing on the man. With the light going in and out she couldn't get a good read on him so she walked closer, up to three meters and stopped, her rifle still aiming at his head.

" _Can you give me an id on_?" Sarge asked.

"Bregman?" She recognized. "Bregman, can you hear me?" She paused. "Sarge it's Bregman, he's-"

Before she finished the sentence Bregman rushed her with a unhuman roar. Between the flickering light she got a good look on his face. His eyes was ferocious and vicious and his veins was clearer than on any healthy person and they were sickly dark grey. She squeezed the trigger and sent two rounds into his chest and two into the wall behind him. She released a scream when she fell on her back and he was on top of her. she was desperately trying to get his hand under control as he clawed and punched her without holding back.

"Temple!" Destroyer shouted.

" _Temple, talk to me_ ," Sarge said over the radio. "Talk to me Temple."

Her scream had apparently carried because Reaper's voice came over the radio too.

" _Temple are you okay? Temple_?" He asked with a strained and concerned voice.

She managed to grab his wrists and prevent him to scratch or beat her any further. To her shock he tried to bite her in her face after a few moments of struggling. He continued to try getting his hand free as he made several attempts to rip into her face. There was only so much she could do to avoid getting bitten from her pinned state. She tried kicking him off but she couldn't get to him since he sat on her waist. But as a saving angel Destroyer came to the rescue.

"Get him off of me!" Temple cried out in desperation.

Destroyer grabbed him and pulled him off and threw him three meters from her. Bregman was quickly back on his feet and rushed at Destroyer. The giant slapped him with his chaingun hard. He was trying to avoid hurting their fellow RRTS brother. Sev was staring in shock at her teammate after helping Temple up on her feet.

"Bregman get a hold of yourself," Sev tried weakly.

" _Temple report_!" Sarge demanded. " _Destroyer, what's happening_?"

"It's Bregman, he's psychotic!" Temple yelled in her radio.

" _We're on our way_!" Sarge answered swiftly.

Bregman leaped at Destroyer but he punched him in the chest and pushed him back. He let his chaingun rest by its strap while he delivered several punches and a kick to Bregman to get behind him. he pinned him down by grabbing and holding his arms behind his back. Bregman kicked, screeched and spat ferociously. He fought so fiercely that even Destroyer had trouble holding him in place.

"Knock him out!" He shouted to outdo Bregman so Temple and Sev could hear him.

Temple moved up and hit Bregman in the face with the butt of her rifle. He managed to kick her in the leg. She grunted painfully and stepped back. She got closer after a moment and hit him in the forehead but except from causing damage and make him start bleeding he was very much not unconscious. Secondary those two bullets she put in his chest wasn't slowing him down either. He seemed completely oblivious about his injuries.

"G-guy!" Sev exclaimed.

Temple turned around. Sev was aimed her rifle at a figure in a blue jumpsuit approaching them very quickly. He looked at psychotic as Bregman. She quickly closed the distance between herself and Sev and gave one warning.

"Halt!"

She waited two seconds before she squeezed the trigger. Sev did the same when she heard Temple shoot. Both put a hail of bullets into the crazy man and he toppled over and fell to the ground. His head had been pierced by several rounds and splattered his brains across the floor. Sev was breathing heavily so Temple put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay. Good work, Sev." She turned back to Destroyer and saw his grip of Bregman was slipping. She jogged the two meters between them and fired at Bregman at point blank range. She put two rounds through his right leg.

Destroyer let him go and he fell forward. He tried getting up but Temple put a single bullet in his left leg. To all their shock the fact he had been shot in the legs didn't prevent him from getting up. He couldn't full stand straight and stumbled but he was up on his legs all the same. Destroyer squeezed the trigger of his chaingun and with a roar he shot Bregman's right leg clean off at the knee. Sev gasped but it worked to get the insane man to the ground. He still roared, spat and clawed all in their direction though. When he was crawling towards them Temple decided to end it and put a burst of six rounds in his skull, splitting his head right open.

"Sarge…" Temple said into the radio with a heavy sigh.


	3. Chapter 3

Doom Into the Depth

Chapter 3

 **4** **th** **Mars2044**

 **Somewhere in the Pacific, Underwater Research facility Deepstar Four**

When Reaper, Goat and Portman arrived they saw two dead bodies and Temple bent over PFC Bregman's. His right leg had been ripped off and his skull shattered. Destroyer was checking that Sev was okay considering what had happened. They had just arrived some seconds after it was over by the looks of it. A minute tops. Temple was still tense from the event leading up to Bregman's death.

"Are you guys okay?" Reaper asked.

"Holy shit," Portman commented wide eyed.

"Yeah," Temple assured. "Sev might be a little shaken up but, she'll be alright. It all happened real fast."

Portman walked a few paces over to Sev and Destroyer and eyed the second dead body. A man with a blue jumpsuit. His head had been blown apart too. He was littered with bleeding holes actually and Portman shook his head at the gory scene.

"Hey Portman," reaper caught his attention. "See if you can id that guy."

Portman nodded. He strolled over and turned the gored corpse over. He read the nametag on the chest. It wasn't east since it was covered in blood, or whatever it was. It was some grey and black liquid.

"What happened?" Reaper asked Temple gently. He took a knee beside her, looking at Bregman. "W-what is all that?" He referred to all the grey-black shit covering the place.

Temple didn't have time to answer until Sarge arrived with Duke behind him. he gave the scene a quick look over and marched over to them. Goat and Duke stared at the gory mess. Both were confused. Everyone felt the loss of one of their own.

"What the fuck happened?" He demanded, eyes on Destroyer and Temple. Sine both had the rank of Sergeant he waited for either of them to answer.

Temple and Reaper got up.

"Sir," she said. "PFC Bregman was crazy, he tried to kill us and he didn't leave us any choice but to kill him. The same with that other man-"

"Fredrick Larsson, technician," Portman added.

"…Larsson," Temple continued exasperated, tired and confused. "Bregman seemed to ignore everything we did. No matter how many bullets we put in him without killing him he ignored all of it. We had no choice. Shooting his leg off didn't stop him from trying to kill us. He…he just kept coming and…" she walked over to Bregman's corpse and looked down at it. "…look at this Sarge. Look at his blood."

Sarge got a good long look at it. It was grey and black. He kneeled in front of the corpse.

"What. The. Hell."

Everyone gathered around.

"What the fuck?" Duke said under his breath.

"He's been infected by something," Reaper stated confidently. "A virus or some sort of bacteria."

"Oh shit, oh shit," Duke cursed. "We aren't infected right?" He looked at Reaper.

Reaper threw a glance around at everyone. Sarge, Destroyer, Goat and Temple all maintained their composure perfectly. Goat almost looked disinterested. Sev, Portman and Duke showed more concern.

"If it's airborne, no doubt we are all infected. But, if it is spread by body fluids or skin contact no." He paused and looked at Temple with concern. A few eyes darted to Temple's scratched face. "I have never seen or heard of anything like this before so I would have to say it came from the ocean floor. Some sort of bacteria the dug up. it got loose and infected some or all of them."

Sarge clenched his hands around his gun.

"Unit 4 goes in and gets jumped. Bregman is infected and possibly more of them. Alright, we need to get back to it men. Return to your previous search pattern. Duke and I will find a computer and get whatever information about this thing we can." He looked at them all, giving Temple an extra glance with his hard gaze, and Reaper saw it made her feel uneasy. "Move out and keep any infected persons at a distance. Deadly forces authorized."

"S-sir," Sev spoke up.

He looked at her over his half-turned shoulder.

"Speak up soldier."

"W-what if it c-can be reversed?" She was naturally worried about her teammates. They all were but Reaper knew they couldn't risk their own lives that way.

"We can't risk spreading this thing and get infected ourselves." He had a firm but somewhat soft voice. "Prophet and his men knew the risks. We all do. Move out."

Sev swallowed hard and nodded.

As everyone started splitting up again he made his way to Temple.

"You okay?" He asked in a gentle, almost whispering voice.

She titled her head in his direction.

"I'm okay."

"Are you sure, Valkyria? We don't know how this thing works. It may not be able to spread but under specific circumstances at all."

"I got it John, just…let's not talk about this right now, okay?"

He nodded slowly.

"Stay safe." He marched off to Portman and Goat and made way through the mess hall.

* * *

The room Reaper, Goat and Portman cleared was a small docking bay for an underwater drone. It had a console in an glassed in section and a large circular pool in the center of the white and quite wet floor. A drone was hanging in the ceiling, just off the side of the circular exit. On their way here they had discovered another body. Private First Class Harlan. He was a marine attached to Deepstar Four as security. He was one out of four security personal permanently attached to the facility.

Reaper heard Portman sigh.

"Decompression's gonna be a bitch."

"You've done diving before right?" Reaper asked him in a low voice.

Portman snorted.

"Yeah, ones. Outside of training that is. It was before I joined 6. Back with Unit 2. Gunnery Sergeant Austin led us on a mission into a sub that sunk outside Alaska. It was a big Russia hunk of metal." He sounded creeped out by just thinking about it to Reaper.

They walked back out into the corridor.

"Austin died didn't he?" Goat recollected.

"Right. Russian shits wasn't willing to give up there sub to us, being in American water's or not." He gave them a grim and dark smirk. "Guess nobody ever told them it was stupid to shoot inside a sub. Rest of us barely got out of there in time. That was like… 30 meters from the surface. Nothing ever this deep down." he took a deep breath and steadied himself against the wall.

Goat halted mid-step and slowly looked at him.

"You good Portman?"

Portman slowly nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get this bucking mission done and go home," he grunted bitterly.

Reaper stopped at the next door.

"This should be the last docking bay here."

With a nod to Goat he keyed the panel and Goat moved inside with Reaper second and Portman bringing up the rear. It was the same set up as before. Nothing really new. The craft that was supposed to be there was missing though. Reaper checked the console and confirmed there should be a mini-sub here.

"Sarge, we're in docking Bay D and there is a mini-sub missing."

" _Anything in the log about it_?"

"Looking through the Bay log now, but I got nothing. It left on a repair mission outside eight hours before we got here."

" _Copy that. Nothing we can do about that, continue searching_."

"Yes Sarge."

Goat threw Reaper a look.

"You think whoever was on board could have gone insane?"

Reaper shrugged.

"Who knows. Maybe. Temple's description makes them look brainless. Doubtful they could pilot a mini-sub on their own."

"Hmm."

* * *

Temple looked past her shoulder at Sev.

"I'm sorry about Bregman," she said.

"Yes ma'am," Sev answered in a low voice. Her gaze remained focused ahead. "Do you think they're all like that? Crazy?"

"I hope not. Prophet's a good marine. If anyone can get his men through this alive, it's him." she had never actually met the guy but Sarge had always said he was a good man, never left a mission unfinished or a man behind.

"Clear," Destroyer confirmed and walked out of the room.

They were clearing a corridor of crew quarters. Half done and half left. this far it was all empty safe for one room. They had found a guy named Harlan. Part of the facility's security team and very, very dead. he had been shot several times. The body count was rising steadily and there was bound to be more infected maniacs moping around the place.

"I prefer our time in Saudi Arabia over this shit," Temple muttered.

Destroyer chuckled.

"Right? As fucked up as that was, this is worse," he stated.

The went down room by room and checked the entire corridor before moving on to the secondary control room. Temple took a deep breath as she looked at the body holding the door open by its presence in the doorway. She moved over it and inside the control room.

"Clear."

Destroyed followed her.

"That's Priebus," he confirmed. His eyes swiftly darted to another body that had limbs blown off and the nearby console was wrecked.

"Oh god," Sev gasped. "That's Castile, I think."

Temple confirmed it with a nod.

"Id's intact. This is definitely Lance Corporal Stephano Castile. Used to be at least."

"Grenade," Destroyer stated. "Somebody bunkered down in here. Shot Priebus when the door opened and took out Castile with a grenade." He contacted Sarge over the radio. "Sarge, got two bodies. Both our missing RRTS."

" _Who is it_?" Sarge asked in his usual firm voice.

"PFC Priebus and Lance Corporal Castile. We found them in the secondary control room. Sarge, somebody dug in here and killed them defending the place, gotta be one of our guys. Prophet, Coetzee, Walker or Falcon."

"Copy that. we'll bag all the bodies ones we're done searching the facility. Finish up in the crew quarters."

"Copy."

They all looked up at the ceiling when the power went out.

"Son of a…" Temple cursed.

"It's just a power outage," Destroyer said calmly. He looked towards the junction they approached and turned on the light on his chaingun barrel. "Power conduit malfunction or damages done during or before the presumed viral outbreak. If it is a virus or bacteria."

Temple glanced at Sev with her silver eyes. She looked a bit nervous. She was probably worried about getting jumped in the dark, like she herself was by Bregman not long ago.

"W-what else could it be?" The rookie asked.

"We'll figure it out either way," Destroyer told her confidently. He reached the junction first. "Clear left."

"Clear right," Sev said back.

Temple returned a few stands of hair behind her ear and aimed down left. Her light didn't stumble on anything living.

"So, left or right?" She inquired rather casually.

"Armory should be left," Destroyer said. "We should check it out."

She nodded.

"Sounds good buddy."

They walked in a few minutes of silence before power was restored in their section.

"Ma'am, can I, can I ask you something?" Sev eventually asked.

"Of course."

"Portman, is he always…" she trailed off uncertainly.

Temple smiled slightly.

"Mostly, yeah. But beneath all that he's a good marine, and he'll have your back in the thick off it," Destroyer chimed in.

"Especially if you have a nice butt," Temple added.

Destroyer was about to say something but he ended up shrugging and bobbing his head up and down slowly.

"True." He looked back at Sev. "There was this mission a year back, in Germany,"

Temple snickered at the mention of that mission and saw Sev look at her with an inquisitive eyebrow.

",The mission was to locate a foreign spy of the behalf of the German government. We grabbed him and stuffed him in a car. Portman was driving and when we were going on the autobahn and the bugger wouldn't talk, so Portman locked the accelerator with his rifle and climbed into the back with us. When he and Duke both started singing Hallelujah, the guy freaked out and told us everything we wanted to know and more."

Temple and Destroyer both laughed and Sev released a muffled giggle.

"D-id that really happen?" Sev snickered.

"Oh yeah," Temple confirmed grinning. "Almost crashed when Portman had trouble getting back up front. See the road was turning but we weren't." _The good old days_ , she thought.


End file.
